26. Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Indio spent another silent ride in the SUV back to the farmhouse, and Sel was out of the thing practically before he fully stopped. He smiled and shook his head, the irony of the entire thing not missing his attention.

Dinner that early evening was eaten on the porch, but Sel was surrounded by his posse, all of them whispering to each other while throwing looks his way the entire time. Once dinner was finished, he decided to go for a ride on his bike, though he wasn't supposed to go alone.

Kirk was kneeling by his bike, adjusting the gas line. "You want to go for a ride?"

Kirk stood, brushing off his pants. "Sure."

"Thanks."

They rode to one of the lakes on the property, and as they dismounted, Indio took in the view of the sun in the west, slowly descending behind the far mountains, the light show in the sky taking a lot of his hurt and anger, but not all of it.

On the north side of the lake, there was a thick forest with dancing shadows from the sun's setting, and the breeze coming off the lake cooled him considerably. Kirk stood next to him as they looked over the rippling water. "Pretty, ain't it."

"Was never this pretty anywhere I ever lived. Always city shit."

"Yeah. I liked LA, but the older I get the more I crave this kind of life. Open, not a thousand people on every corner."

Indio swallowed as the question formed in his head, but he knew he had to ask. "You and Mal…you guys get along good."

"Yeah. He's great, but we didn't always. We fought like two bobcats when we first got together. He wanted shit from me I wasn't ready to give. I was headed to prison early on and wanted to just let him go, let him live a life. He didn't let me. Refused to hear about it. Went so far as to show up at the clubhouse with another dude."

Indio turned to him, jaw dropping.

"It's true," Kirk confirmed. "He was crazy, man, still is. I almost killed the poor guy he brought. I dragged his ass home, he pushed me, and he had less muscles then than he does now, but he told me what an ass I was being. He said he loved me, and I knew I loved him. I was just too fucking mean and stubborn to admit it."

Indio knew that was an intentional jab at him. "Yeah, well, what if you'd have gotten killed for loving him?"

"Will you though? Do you think Dante would kill you?"

"Why not? I would. Some fucking guy from a fucked up home, barely hanging on to his own life, with a guy like Sel? Come on, Kirk. Don't act like I'm some catch."

He gently slapped Indio's arm and had him follow to the water's edge where they sat. "Catch is relative. I think that you think you need a bunch of money to be good enough for him. Or that you've lived a hard life and that might rub off on him."

"Yeah!"

"That's bullshit. No one had a perfect upbringing, Indio. We all have our emotional scars, but what is more important is how you move on from them. Trusting yourself and trusting him, that's fucking hard. I know. But it gets easier."

"If he even wants me. If I even want him, I mean, hell, maybe it's just the sex."

"Could be, sure. I doubt you'd be out here in need of heavy thinking if it was only your dick you were worried about."

He hated the talk. He felt like he should hold it all in and deal with it. Still, having someone who understood him for once in his life was nice, if not completely uncomfortable.

"I'll figure this out. If Sel waits for that, though, I kind of doubt it."

"Me too. He's not the type to have a lot of patience."

"Wow," he said laughing. "I really thought you'd say he'd wait for me."

"You'd know I was lying. He's stubborn too, Indio. Maybe spend some time thinking today, go to him soon and let him know how you feel, one way or the other. Please, man, before you two kill each other."

"I'd never hurt him."

"It might be in self-defense."

They spent an hour at the lake, tossing rocks in, talking about the Azteca's and Devil's move to Montana, then rode back together and Kirk was quick to head inside, but Indio hung back, walking off in the trees to lean on one while he smoked a cigar and used the quiet time to think.

It wasn't needed, of course. He knew what he wanted, to go up to Sel's room, wake him, if he was sleeping, tell him things he never thought he'd say. But, he thought, he knew he's cower and head downstairs to his lonely cot and spend the night tossing and turning, wishing he'd have gone up the stairs and made his feelings known.

He wasn't that type of guy. Everything inside him fought against those feelings, fear overwhelming good sense, because love always meant pain. It was harsh and scarring pain that came with caring about anyone.

After the cigar was finished, he walked out of the trees toward the farmhouse, smashing the butt of the cigar on the hard-packed road. Into the backdoor he went, taking the gun from the holster on his shoulder, the one he'd grown so used to having, he mostly forgot about it.

As he moved to set it in the basket, he saw the basket was gone. "What the fuck?"

Thinking someone had hidden it while the backdoor was unlocked, he kept the gun on him and went through the breezeway door into the kitchen, turning to head down to the basement when he suddenly froze in his tracks.

There was a chair butted up against the doorknob of the basement door, effectively locking everyone out of the main house.

His entire body tingled with alertness, his mind spinning as to what could be happening, but he found he already knew, and when he heard the soft footsteps upstairs, he knew who it was.

He dislodged the chair from the door, quietly opened it and turned on the basement light, hopefully alerting Kirk, if he wasn't already sleeping.

Quickly he took off his boots and left them by the stairs before taking them up to the second floor, padding quietly.

His gun in hand, cocked, he moved over the landing ducking, watching ahead of him as he turned the corner to the hall where the bedrooms lay.

His heart was beating so hard that he was afraid it would signal his position, but he didn't stop, making his way as fast as he would without running and making noise.

As he got to Sel's room, he saw the door open, which he knew it shouldn't be. There would be no way Sel would have left it open, being so angry with Indio. He got to the doorway and peeked in, seeing a man standing over Sel's bed while Sel lay sleeping.

The glint of moonlight hit metal, showing Indio the knife, and Indio moved without thinking, without a sound, turning into the doorway, lifting the gun, pointing it right at the man's head, following it as he bent over Sel while raising the knife in the air, ready to plunge it inside of the sleeping man.

He had only one chance to stop Sel from being killed. He doubted if Alex Brooks was aiming to wound Sel. One shot, one second, one heartbeat away from Sel being lost forever, taking Indio's heart with him.

Indio's hatred for Alex Brooks competed only with the warm, wonderful feelings he had for Sel, and once he shot, he knew in his heart that if he missed, he'd lose Sel forever.

The sound in the quiet house was loud, shocking even him, though he knew it was coming, and as he watched, Alex Brooks was still, completely unmoving for what seemed like hours, but then, he slumped, the knife falling from his hand as his knees buckled and he fell to the floor in a lump.

Sel was sitting up, scrambling clumsily to the opposite side of the bed, even as doors flew open and men started appearing in the hall. Indio paid none of them a bit of attention, rushing into the room and grabbing Sel off the bed, dragging him into his arms and holding him there.

"You okay? That knife didn't cut you, did it?"

Sel was sobbing uncontrollably, his body shaking so badly he couldn't speak at all. Indio moved past the men crowding the hall, half of them on phones and he carried Sel down to the living room.

After sitting on the couch, he held the man, who still hadn't said a word. His arms were draped around Indio's neck and his face solidly in Indio's chest. "Are you hurt? Just tell me that, please!"

Sel brought his face from Indio's chest and unwrapped his arms, looking over each. "I…I don't think…no, I'm okay."

"Sel, god, I was so scared," he said, taking Sel's chin in his grip and bringing him in for a kiss. "So scared."

"You saved me," he said against Indio's lips. "You saved my life."

"Right place, right time."

"No! You saved me!"

He held Sel on the sofa close, even as men started filling the room. "Dante's on his way," Marius told him. "What the fuck happened?"

As Indio quickly filled them in, he watched Mal, Kirk and Dog come into the room, confirming the man was dead. "You got him right through the temple."

Sel snuggled closer to him, and Binx sat beside him. "Are you okay?"

"Thanks to Indio."

"Really, I was coming in, I saw a chair against the basement door. If I hadn't been smoking, I would have been down there too."

"I never thought I'd be so glad you smoked," Mal said, laughing. "Well, it's over. It's finally over."

Sel nodded on his shoulder. "It's over."

Dante came in soon after and Indio hated that Sel was still on his lap, but Dante didn't seem to notice. He rushed to his nephew, Blaine on his heels, and knelt quickly. "Sel? You okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, Uncle Dante. He had a knife, but Indio saved me. He saved my life."

Dante's dark eyes met his. "Anything you ever want or need, Indio, just ask. Anything."

Sel again nodded against Indio's shoulder. "Anything."

"Good. Stop fighting with me."

"Okay, I can't promise that."

Blaine laughed and pulled his husband up from the floor. "Let's let them be for the moment, Dante. The sheriff and other law enforcement are on the way." To Indio, he said, "They'll want to speak to you both."

"Sure, sure."

Indio checked over Sel again. "Are you okay to talk to them?"

"If you're with me."

For the first time, Sel didn't seem like the tough guy he tried so hard to be. He was vulnerable, and he'd likely hate that, but for that little while, Indio took great comfort in it. All the times he'd felt like a frightened wuss, being scared shitless of his growing feelings for Sel, he finally saw that Sel wasn't above fear. Even if it did take being nearly killed for them to show.

The law came, and they gave their statements. The house was a crime scene, so they were all taken to the bunkhouse for the rest of the night. Not that anyone slept. After Vic was finished with her police duties, she went straight to the kitchen, and together with Binx, started pumping out coffee, food and comfort.

One of the empty rooms in the bunkhouse was given to Sel and Indio. Sel still clung to him, but he'd stopped his tears and shaking at last. "I can't believe I even fell asleep. I was so pissed off, I thought I'd be up all night, planning how I'd fuck with you."

"I figured. I was actually surprised to see you sleeping."

"I'm sorry, Indio. I didn't mean to push."

"I didn't mean to…be such a dick. The things I said, I didn't really mean them."

"Even if you did, it wasn't up to me to make you…change."

Indio felt Sel's eyes on him, but like before, he was too cowardly to meet them.

"Indio, I don't care if we ever live together or tell anyone we're together or anything. I don't want anything but to spend time with you."

"That's a lie," he said, then kissed Sel softly. "I'm just not ready to talk about any of that right now. Not after what happened. Right now, just knowing you're okay is all I want to know. The rest, it'll either come or we'll kill each other."

Sel nodded, smiling and then jumped as he heard his phone. He picked it up and saw it was his father. "Dad."

"Video call."

Sel moved away from him so the wall of the room was behind him instead of Indio and he answered. "Hi, Dad."

"Sel…thank God you're okay. Dante called me, he told me everything that happened. Where is this boyfriend of yours?"

"He's not my boyfriend, Dad."

"Well, he saved your life, so you'd better figure out what he is. He's about to come into a lot of money and have any job he could ever want."

Sel's smile was sweet as he said, "He's right here."

Indio felt his ass puckering over the thought of speaking to Sel's father, but Sel handed him the phone and he was soon face to face, or at least as face to face as a video call could be, with the head of the Carrillo crime family. "Hello, sir."

"Sir, my ass. You saved my son's life. I hope you heard what I just told Sel. Anything you want, anywhere you want to live, whatever."

Indio moved his eyes from the phone to Sel and said, "I've got everything I could want here, sir, I mean…I mean Mr. Carrillo. I'm all set."

"If that ever changes, including if my pain in the ass son doesn't realize what a good man he's got, you just give me a call."

"Thank you."

Sel snatched back the phone and pouted, "Dad! I almost got killed and you're calling me a pain in the ass?"

"Yeah. I am. Here's your mom. She's about to tear off my arm to talk to you."

Before he could laugh at Sel, a woman's face was on the phone, a very beautiful woman with deep lines between her brows. "Selestino, my God, are you ever going to stop worrying us?"

"Mom! I've never worried you! To be fair, this is the first time since I've been here, I haven't been the perfect son!"

"We don't have enough with Antonia and Cesar?"

"Thanks, Mom!"

"You know we love you, Sel. Now, let me talk to your guy."

"He's not…never mind. Here."

Again, Indio was confronted with a parent of Sel. "Indio! Oh, thank you so very much for saving our son! I don't know what we'd have done if you hadn't been there. You're a very sweet man!"

The phone was taken again as Sel complained, "To be fair, Mom, you don't know if he's sweet."

"Hey," Indio hissed at him.

"He's okay," Sel gave. "I'm gonna rest. Tell Dad bye for me, and stop worrying. I have a protector."

"You do. I love you, son."

"Love you, Mom."

After the call was over, Indio pushed him playfully. "Dick!"

"You're not sweet."

"Maybe not, but you don't tell your folks that shit."

"Afraid?"

Indio shook his head, laughing. "I swear, you're gonna get me killed yet."

"Nah. I'll just have to save you next time so we're even. I don't like owing you."

"Hey, that's right, you do owe me one! Get naked."

"Here? You know these walls are thinner than the ones at the farmhouse."

"True. Maybe we'll just get some sleep on this tiny bed."

Sel moved over to him again, melting into his arms. "I think that sounds like the best plan yet."